What, like the Trump-do?

Cheerful Nightmare Moon pagetopper!

edited 8th Oct '12 4:28:51 PM by CDRW

Sorry folks, I officially had a bit of a strop there, and for that I apologise. I'm just very anxious about this whole thing.

I'll take those comments about the dreads into consideration. It was a spare the moment thing when I added them.

I say you should still go with them. I like the unique look it gives him.

Thank you Mio. It does befit his hippiness I think.

Maybe a comprise? A normal long mane with some dreads?

Spiked Mohawk Dreads!

That actually would be inline with a more typical pirate look. Even if he really isn't a pirate.

edited 8th Oct '12 4:38:45 PM by Mio

I think I have a plan then.

In oversimplified terms, your modal voice is your usual singing/speaking voice, and your falsetto voice is the one above it which you use for making fun of opera singers and teasing friends. In a physical sense, the modal voice vibrates your entire vocal cord, while the falsetto holds most of it still and uses only the outer and upper edge. *

You also have two additional registers. Below modal is vocal fry, which is deep in the throat and sort of "bubbles" air through the cords like a croak. Above falsetto is whistle, which is the really annoying shit babies can scream when they hate your soul — the physical mechanism isn't entirely understood since the epiglottis closes and we can't see it with cameras like we can the others.

To see this in action, hum a low note and then drag it upwards as high as you can. There'll be a quick airy pause as you naturally transition to falsetto — this is your vocal break.

The ranges of each depend on your personal characteristics (size of the cords etc) and how well you've developed it, and the break will vary. Typically, the modal and falsetto ranges overlap somewhat by an octave or so, but they have different tone quality because they use your vocal cords in completely different ways. Generally, you want to keep from switching between them in the middle of a musical phrase — not only for the sake of sounding consistent across the phrase, but also because moving between them tends to have that brief, airy break while your vocal cords go "oh shit I have to do this other thing!" and change vibration modes.

This Day has the singer use the modal voice for Chrysalis and the falsetto for Cadence to distinguish their voices — notice Cadence sounds more airy, while Chrysalis sounds more dark and solid even though for their intros they're singing the same notes. But Chrysalis's prima donna moment in the middle pushes the upper bound of modal voice. That limit is dictated by how easily you can move the entire vocal cord instead of just the upper edge, so you can extend its range a bit by just pushing air harder (which this song allows there by getting louder there) and being very careful to keep the throat relaxed, but it's exceedingly difficult to control and you can go out of tune really fast. Likewise, most of Cadence's part pushes the lower edge of falsetto, but pulling that off is less risky.

Looking back on the English version, it sounds like the original singer just went ahead and jumped to falsetto for that couple of measures (where the camera pitches up to the chandelier and spins) instead of trying to power through it like the German one tried, but she masked it really, really well.

tl;dr, from a technical standpoint that song is more of a nightmare than it sounds.

edited 8th Oct '12 5:30:49 PM by Pykrete

You know, it's been a while since I reported on my forays through the world of mlp fanfiction! I've been reading a lot more shorter stories lately.

The Soul of a Pony: Twilight learns how to Soul Gaze, and of course looks into the souls of the rest of the girls. Fun story, provides a pretty good analysis of what makes the girls tick.

Sunny Skies All Day Long: Celestia is tired of her little ponies tripping over themselves on her behalf whenever she shows up. She takes on the guise of Sunny Skies, completely ordinary pegasus, and visits Ponyville. Shenanigans ensue. Apparently, this story is very well regarded as having a plot that could totally happen in an actual episode, and I agree!

The Song of Shylex: Twi finds a very old book that tells a story of Celestia being totally badass for the sake of her ponies. I know I've seen this one mentioned her in the thread in the past, and I certainly found it worth the read!

Ah Ain't Got no Ack-cent!: AJ slips up and reveals to Rarity that she can speak with a perfect Manehatten accent. High society shenanigans ensue at Rarity's behest, much to A Js distress. I'm pretty sure this one's already well know, and I certainly enjoyed it.

and finally, Among the Ruins: after years of rampant industrialization and growth, a chemical/industrial disaster of unprecedented scale befalls Canterlot, killing everypony there. Everypony except Twilight Sparkle, who somehow survived, although the incident also changed her. For 2 years Twilight has wandered the contaminated ruins of Canterlot, but now she has found a way out. Will her friends, family, and society be willing to accept her back, even though she's something more than just a pony now? A pretty unique premise, and also very interesting. The story itself is a lot less dark than it sounds, as Celestia, Luna, SA, and everypony else we know from Canterlot was away when it happened, the rest of Equestria is relatively fine, and the story itself is entirely about Twi escaping and reuniting with her friends.

edited 8th Oct '12 5:04:12 PM by Blissey1

@Applelight: I like the dreads myself, though you could probably stand to refine their look some.

You do seem to do good character designs though.

Thank you Blue.

Here's a question for you App, are you planning to do this thing in color or black and white? Cause color definitely adds a lot to character design.

Definitely colour Blue. I'm working on learning Photoshop at the moment. I coloured Batty recently...it's scrappy, but it gives me an insight to how things might look.

Ahahahaha so much pony refs in this character

Those developers must like their pony, huh.

Apparently :V

My Little Websurfers II

Literal TV Dinner

This is just... I don't know. Mythology is twisted.

@Mousa: It's a real old thing. Once upon a time about 900-1000 years back, there was a legend about unicorn hunters who would bring virgin maidens along to calm down the vicious Wild Unicorns of Europe.

You think that's messed up? Here you go.

@Pykrete: Looks like Fluttershy inherited her Stare after all

Art trade between Sibsy and Carnifex: Wildfire and Velvet

edited 8th Oct '12 5:43:53 PM by AceOfScarabs

Mythology centered around horses tends to be kinda fucked up.

@Condo: There used to be a floating around that one of Pinkie's distant ancestors was Sleipnir.

Actual horse behavior isn't very nice either

I know the mythology 100% Ace, the picture just put it in a more disturbing context, especially Rarity's reaction obviously.

@Mousa: Eh

Gameloft still teasing new OFFICIAL pony game

Huh, that ought to be interesting.